Hampshire Students Participating in Massachusetts Poetry Festival

Hampshire College students Mireidys Garcia 10F, Taylor Haaf 10F, Cristina Peña 10F, and Milo Muise 10F will participate in the Massachusetts Poetry Festival May 2-4 in Salem.

Their session—Young Poets Address Issues of Identity: The Body, Trauma, Empowerment, and Transformation—is on Sunday, May 4, at 11:45 a.m.

Five College student Ashley Amon of Mt. Holyoke College will also be on the panel.

The group's participation stems largely from their work in Professor Heather Madden's writing workshop, Band, Cast, Sedge, Bask: Building a Collection of Poems, last fall.

"Reading their work, I was glad to know that they were working together in the workshop, offering one another feedback. Then I realized this should be a panel or reading," Professor Madden said.

"What struck me, in reading the work of these poets, was the variety of ways that they had addressed issues of body, trauma, empowerment, and transformation. Each writer was clearly deeply engaged with their project," Madden said.

Among prominent poets featured at the festival are Carol Ann Duffy, Britain's first female Poet Laureate, and Phil Levine, the U.S. Poet Laureate, who will give a joint reading May 2.